LIVE: Watch the first Semi-Final!

Everything is now ready for the first Semi-Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Starting at 21:00 CET tonight, viewers all across Europe and the rest of the world will tune in and vote in Europe's favourite TV show, which is to be presented by Nadia Hasnaoui, Erik Solbakken and Haddy Jatou N'Jie. You can see the show LIVE on our ESCTV player!

Find out more about the 17 songs that will be represented in the first Semi-Final below.

1. Moldova: Sunstroke Project & Olia Tira - Run Away
2. Russia: Peter Nalitch & Friends - Lost And Forgotten
3. Estonia: Malcolm Lincoln - Siren
4. Slovakia: Kristina Pelakova - Horehronie
5. Finland: Kuunkuiskaajat - Työlki Ellää
6. Latvia: Aisha - What For?
7. Serbia: Milan Stanković - Ovo Je Balkan
8. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Vukašin Brajić - Thunder And Lightning
9. Poland: Marcin Mroziński - Legenda
10. Belgium: Tom Dice - Me And My Guitar
11. Malta: Thea Garrett - My Dream
12. Albania: Juliana Pasha - It's All About You
13. Greece: Giorgos Alkaios & Friends - OPA
14. Portugal: Filipa Azevedo - Há Dias Assim
15. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Gjoko Taneski - Jas Ja Imam Silata
16. Belarus: 3+2 Feat. Robert Wells - Butterflies
17. Iceland: Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi

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Out of tonight's participants, ten will proceed to the Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. The ten countries going forward to the Final will be announced in random order by opening virtual envelopes on the screen. Every country that is represented in this Semi-Final has the right to vote, as well as Spain, Germany and France.

As in the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, 50% of the result from every country consists of the viewers voting. The other 50% for the countries come from a professional jury. The jury groups consist of five music industry professionals, who gather to listen to the songs with professional eyes and ears. They have been asked to judge the vocals, the quality and originality of the songs, the acts and the overall impression of the performance. They judged on the rehearsal from last night, so their votes are now ready to add to the viewers vote this evening.

The voting starts in the beginning of the broadcast. The phone numbers to be used for voting are related to the running order of the songs and will be displayed the TV screen many times during the show. The entire Semi-Final is broadcast live at Eurovision.tv between 21:00 and 23:00 CET. Some 30 minutes after the broadcast, the press conference of the ten contestants advancing to the Final starts. Just like the Semi-Final show, this press conference will be streamed live at Eurovision.tv.

Yesterday was not only the first day of dress rehearsals, it marked also the first time all the artists had to be 100% ready for their stage act. This means, everybody was wearing their actual costumes for the big night, everyone had to get their hair styled and everything prepared for their performance in time. In other words, a lot was going on backstage.

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